•How will you facilitate an authentic collaborative learning experience to promote deeper student engagement with content skills and concepts? Because the content outlined in this unit is information that students may not be as familiar with, I think that they’ll be interested in gaining the knowledge. Furthermore, the various technological resources/tools that will be used to complete the activities give students an opportunity to not only learn new information, but present their findings in creative ways. Lastly, students will be allowed to work with others; thereby, forcing them to learn together and from one another. Overall, students will be required to communicate and collaborate as they learn the necessary content. Furthermore, they will be required to produce a variety of promotional material in an attempt to share the learned information with others. These experiences will automatically enhance student's learning experience.
For instance, with one of the assigned projects, students will be placed into groups of three (3). Within their group, students must decide which African American inventor or scientist to complete their project on. After decided on the individual, group members must agree on the best method to demonstrate understanding and knowledge. Furthermore, students will need to use an array of technologies to communicate and collaborate, such as Google Docs, Skype, email, and the telephone. There may be instances of face to face interactions outside of the classroom as well. Overall, student groups will have to find the best methods for communication and collaboration within their group.
•As members of collaborative groups, how will you support students’ efforts to identify solutions to the problem you are using as the framework for your PBL instructional unit? As a teacher, I tend to lead through modeling. I attempt to demonstrate excellent work and assist students in developing good work ethics and a sense of pride in their work. Therefore, I will complete the projects and show them ways of completing each assignment. Furthermore, I will show them work done by previous students.
I will guide students by providing Web sites for them to use in conducting their research, but will also encourage them to locate their own sites. Furthermore, although I will make myself available to students as needed, I will serve more of a facilitator by empowering them to find their own answers instead of depending on me for all of their answers as they complete the projects. Overall, I will encourage students to exercise independence and creativity as they work on the projects. I will also encourage them to work together and help one another as they go through the learning process.
•What criteria will you use to assign learners to collaborative groups, including a rationale? What will be the size of the collaborative groups you will include in your unit? It is my belief that as children becomes older, they should be given more responsibility as well as opportunities to develop and demonstrate this responsibility. With this in mind, I will allow students to choose their own groups, and there will be 3-4 students in each group.
Before this particular unit, students will already be accustomed to working in small groups of 2-3; therefore, I’ll already have a depiction of which students work well together and which don’t. If students attempt to form a group with individuals who they do not work well with, I will not allow it. Additionally, I will not allow low or academically challenged learners to group up with other low or academically challenged learners. Instead, these students will be placed with academically strong learners who can peer-tutor them along the way.
If my approach to allow them to choose their own group members does not work well, then my next approach would be to group students based on their learning style. Visual learners will be grouped with other visual learners; auditory learners will be groups with other auditory learners, and so on. A learning style inventory will have already been completed by the students to determine their learning styles prior to being placed in groups by their learning style.
•Which digital tools and websites are you considering for collaboration in your unit? To complete the collaborative activities outlined, student groups will consist of 3-4 individuals. Group members are required to communicate with one another both during school hours and after school hours. Taken into consideration that not all students have computers and Internet access at home, students may choose which methods of communication will work best for their group. For instance, some students may only be able to communicate via telephone or cell phone and/or text messaging. Other group members will be able to use video conferencing tools, such as Skype, email, and/or instant messaging tools, such as the Facebook instant messenger.
To foster collaboration amongst group members, students are required to work together to complete projects. To ensure that each individual is participating in the assigned project, students will use Google Docs, as a “free, Web-based office suite and data storage service that allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users” (Wikipedia, 2012). Each individual in the group will be required to contribute to the assignment in the allotted time given to complete it.
•How will you assess participation of the students in their collaborative groups? (In Module 4, you will create assessment rubrics in which you will include this element.) In using Google Docs, the creator of the document has to share permissions to edit it with his or her group members. This allows all individuals to have access to the document and edit (i.e. add to, delete, change) it as needed. The instructor will also be granted the same permissions as each group member; thereby being able to view the document as needed to see who is participating. The instructor will also be able to see how often the document is being updated and by whom. Additionally, at the end of each group project, students will complete an evaluation assessing the performance, workload, and work ethics of each of their group members. Hopefully students will be honest in their assessment of their peers as to pain a clear picture of who is participating and who isn’t.
Having access to students work submitted through Google Docs, the instructor will review the group’s documents to ensure that all students within the group are participating (by adding and/or editing the information) in a timely fashion. For instance, if the assignment is due on Sunday, but one group member did not show any signs of participation because his or her name doesn't show up as one who made any additions or edits to the document, then the instructor will know that this student did not participate in this portion of the assignment. Also, although the student evaluations will be a part of each individual student's grade, the instructor will have rubrics and checklist that will be used to ensure that all parts of the project are completed. Students will be given a whole group grade based on the completion of their group project(s).
•How will you facilitate an authentic collaborative learning experience to promote deeper student engagement with content skills and concepts?
Because the content outlined in this unit is information that students may not be as familiar with, I think that they’ll be interested in gaining the knowledge. Furthermore, the various technological resources/tools that will be used to complete the activities give students an opportunity to not only learn new information, but present their findings in creative ways. Lastly, students will be allowed to work with others; thereby, forcing them to learn together and from one another. Overall, students will be required to communicate and collaborate as they learn the necessary content. Furthermore, they will be required to produce a variety of promotional material in an attempt to share the learned information with others. These experiences will automatically enhance student's learning experience.
For instance, with one of the assigned projects, students will be placed into groups of three (3). Within their group, students must decide which African American inventor or scientist to complete their project on. After decided on the individual, group members must agree on the best method to demonstrate understanding and knowledge. Furthermore, students will need to use an array of technologies to communicate and collaborate, such as Google Docs, Skype, email, and the telephone. There may be instances of face to face interactions outside of the classroom as well. Overall, student groups will have to find the best methods for communication and collaboration within their group.
•As members of collaborative groups, how will you support students’ efforts to identify solutions to the problem you are using as the framework for your PBL instructional unit?
As a teacher, I tend to lead through modeling. I attempt to demonstrate excellent work and assist students in developing good work ethics and a sense of pride in their work. Therefore, I will complete the projects and show them ways of completing each assignment. Furthermore, I will show them work done by previous students.
I will guide students by providing Web sites for them to use in conducting their research, but will also encourage them to locate their own sites. Furthermore, although I will make myself available to students as needed, I will serve more of a facilitator by empowering them to find their own answers instead of depending on me for all of their answers as they complete the projects. Overall, I will encourage students to exercise independence and creativity as they work on the projects. I will also encourage them to work together and help one another as they go through the learning process.
•What criteria will you use to assign learners to collaborative groups, including a rationale? What will be the size of the collaborative groups you will include in your unit?
It is my belief that as children becomes older, they should be given more responsibility as well as opportunities to develop and demonstrate this responsibility. With this in mind, I will allow students to choose their own groups, and there will be 3-4 students in each group.
Before this particular unit, students will already be accustomed to working in small groups of 2-3; therefore, I’ll already have a depiction of which students work well together and which don’t. If students attempt to form a group with individuals who they do not work well with, I will not allow it. Additionally, I will not allow low or academically challenged learners to group up with other low or academically challenged learners. Instead, these students will be placed with academically strong learners who can peer-tutor them along the way.
If my approach to allow them to choose their own group members does not work well, then my next approach would be to group students based on their learning style. Visual learners will be grouped with other visual learners; auditory learners will be groups with other auditory learners, and so on. A learning style inventory will have already been completed by the students to determine their learning styles prior to being placed in groups by their learning style.
•Which digital tools and websites are you considering for collaboration in your unit?
To complete the collaborative activities outlined, student groups will consist of 3-4 individuals. Group members are required to communicate with one another both during school hours and after school hours. Taken into consideration that not all students have computers and Internet access at home, students may choose which methods of communication will work best for their group. For instance, some students may only be able to communicate via telephone or cell phone and/or text messaging. Other group members will be able to use video conferencing tools, such as Skype, email, and/or instant messaging tools, such as the Facebook instant messenger.
To foster collaboration amongst group members, students are required to work together to complete projects. To ensure that each individual is participating in the assigned project, students will use Google Docs, as a “free, Web-based office suite and data storage service that allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users” (Wikipedia, 2012). Each individual in the group will be required to contribute to the assignment in the allotted time given to complete it.
•How will you assess participation of the students in their collaborative groups? (In Module 4, you will create assessment rubrics in which you will include this element.)
In using Google Docs, the creator of the document has to share permissions to edit it with his or her group members. This allows all individuals to have access to the document and edit (i.e. add to, delete, change) it as needed. The instructor will also be granted the same permissions as each group member; thereby being able to view the document as needed to see who is participating. The instructor will also be able to see how often the document is being updated and by whom. Additionally, at the end of each group project, students will complete an evaluation assessing the performance, workload, and work ethics of each of their group members. Hopefully students will be honest in their assessment of their peers as to pain a clear picture of who is participating and who isn’t.
Having access to students work submitted through Google Docs, the instructor will review the group’s documents to ensure that all students within the group are participating (by adding and/or editing the information) in a timely fashion. For instance, if the assignment is due on Sunday, but one group member did not show any signs of participation because his or her name doesn't show up as one who made any additions or edits to the document, then the instructor will know that this student did not participate in this portion of the assignment. Also, although the student evaluations will be a part of each individual student's grade, the instructor will have rubrics and checklist that will be used to ensure that all parts of the project are completed. Students will be given a whole group grade based on the completion of their group project(s).
References:
Google docs. (2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 9, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Docs